A study showed memory is improved by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) It involves a portable skull cap that delivers a magnetic pulse through the scalpThe technique is being trialled as a treatment for Alzheimer's patients

The original article was published on 30 March 2017 in for Mail Online - You can read the complete article here.

Please find some highlights from that original article below. Please note that the 'magnets' talked about below involves applying low-frequency magnetic pulses to the brain. The magnotherapy products sold on this website are static magnets.

Wikipedia says this about TMS - Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a magnetic method used to stimulate small regions of the brain. During a TMS procedure, a magnetic field generator, or "coil", is placed near the head of the person receiving the treatment

Alzheimer's disease could soon be treated with a non-invasive therapy that rests magnets on the head to manipulate brain activity, according to new research. Memory has shown to be improved using a technique that sparks an area of the brain important for sensory skills, scientists in Canada have discovered.The treatment, called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), involves a portable skull cap that delivers a brief, magnetic pulse through the scalp. It has already shown promise in treating depression, schizophrenia and migraine.

The new finding comes as researchers in Australia are currently carrying out the world's first trial into the treatment with Alzheimer's patients. Early reports show that some elderly patients are seeing improvements in their memory and concentration.

In the new study, 17 participants were better at remembering a pattern of tones in reverse after they received TMS.

'Even more exciting is while this study investigated auditory memory, the same approach can be used for multiple cognitive processes such as vision, perception, and learning.'

These are among the many faculties that can be affected by dementia and the researchers said showing TMS can be used to improve mental performance has clinical implications.

They hope it could eventually compensate for the loss of memory caused by neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's.

There are an estimated 850,000 adults in the UK living with dementia, a figure set to rise to two million by 2050 due to an ageing population. Existing drugs simply help symptoms, but their benefits wear off over time and and unfortunately do not work for everyone, resulting in the disease soon taking its devastating course.

Co-author Dr Robert Zatorre said: 'The results are very promising, and offer a pathway for future treatments.

'We plan to do more research to see if we can make the performance boost last longer, and if it works for other kinds of stimuli and tasks.'

The participants were given a task that required them to memorise a sequence of tones to the extent that when they were played backwards they could still identify them.

As they did this their brains were scanned using techniques known as MEG (magnetoencephalography) and EEG (electroencephalography), which record magnetic and electric activity in neurons, respectively.

Scientists already knew a neural network of the brain called the dorsal stream was responsible for aspects of auditory memory.

Inside this were rhythmic electrical pulses called theta waves, yet the role of these were until recently a complete mystery.

The study, published in Neuron, reveals the precise the relationship between theta waves and auditory memory, and demonstrates how memory could be boosted.

The study found subjects' memories were better only when the TMS matched the rhythm of natural theta waves in the brain. When the TMS was arrhythmic, there was no effect on performance. This suggested it was the manipulation of the theta waves, not simply the application of TMS, which improved performance.

The ability to remember sounds, and manipulate them in our minds, is incredibly important to our daily lives. Without it we would not be able to understand a sentence, or do simple arithmetic.

Another co-author of the study Professor Sylvain Baillet explained: 'For a long time the role of theta waves has been unclear.

'We now know much more about the nature of the mechanisms involved and their causal role in brain functions.'

The findings follows US research three years ago that found TMS led to improvement in memory that lasted for 24 hours.

The next day participants who received TMS were much better at remembering associations between human faces and words than those receiving a placebo stimulus.

The team said the technique could lead to non-pharmaceutical treatments for memory disorders resulting from disease, injury and even ageing.

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